Manitoba Moose

There can be no other conclusion. The word is out around the AHL that the Manitoba Moose are easy to play against.How else to explain the constant parade to and through the crease of Moose goalies Cory Schneider and Daren Machesney for most of the season?

It's reached epidemic proportions in the last dozen games and it is good news and bad news that just recently, the Moose have started to do something about it.

The bad news is, why it would take a team more than 60 games to respond? Certainly, nobody in the AHL would be foolish enough to wait for referees to put a stop to it.

The good news for the fourth game in row Friday night was that Schneider's teammates were not amused.

Nobody was pleased about the 4-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins at Van Andel Arena but when Griffins forwards Patrick Rissmiller and Jamie Tardif put a bruising on Schneider, the gloves were off and some frontier justice ensued.

"I think the last few games we've stepped up here but before that, we had been letting them run our goalie," said Moose forward Guillaume Desbiens, who fought with Tardif. "A lot of teams were taking advantage, pushing our defencemen on our goalie or running into him themselves.

"I think we've answered that now. We're going to take some penalties but any team you play on, you have to defend your goalie, especially when our goalies have been so good for us."

Desbiens would rather it wasn't up to him, but he said he's ready to act.

"I'd rather referees took care of it but I can't really say a whole lot about that (other than) they don't do a very good job of it," he said. "That's not an easy job for them, but you can see players don't care about going in there. If somebody's going to fight them or cross-check them, then maybe they'll think twice."

Friday, Schneider, who doesn't usually react during the games, did in a small way, possibly a sign he, too, is fed up.

Late in the second period, he took a poke at Rissmiller and the two jawed as they skated off after the horn.

"It's a hazard of the game but nothing I can't handle," said Schneider, who was busy again against 36 shots in his 46th game of the season. "I wish we'd do it more to their goalies. We might take a penalty now and then but it just makes life hard on goalies, thinking they might get run over or they have to deal with a guy sitting on top of them the entire game."

Moose defenceman Nathan McIver was involved in both Schneider-smacking scraps Friday, which was more than one could say about referee Geno Binda, who gave the Griffs the green light.

"We can't let that happen," McIver said. "He's our best player.

"Really, we'd rather take a power play than go after a guy this time of year. But sometimes we have to get in there and stick up for our goalie."

Moose coach Scott Arniel hinted that the whole matter is a distraction he doesn't need with his inconsistent team.

"Some nights, (referees) let things happen and it turns into secondary altercations and guys wanting to look after their goaltender," the coach said. "It gets everybody away from the business we have.

"You put it on the referees to call it early and stop it but if we at least know what the playing field is, maybe we have to start running other goaltenders. Maybe that's the answer."

Arniel said it's obvious Schneider is the target.

"That's been going on since Cory has become an MVP kind of player," Arniel said. "If we had a guy who was a No. 1 centreman in the league, he'd have the same target on his back."